Stanford Punishes Medical Professors for Giving Paid Speeches for Drug Companies

May 20, 2011, 11:51 am

Stanford University has disciplined five medical-school faculty members for violating the school’s conflict-of-interest rules by giving paid promotional speeches for drug companies, ProPublica reports. A university spokesman declined to identify the faculty members or the sanctions taken against them but said the disciplinary steps were “significant.” The crackdown follows a ProPublica investigation that found teaching hospitals at Stanford and other universities lax in enforcing conflict-of-interest rules. Stanford, which has one of the nation’s strictest such policies, identified more than a dozen faculty members who were paid speakers, the report said.

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richardtaborgreene

Colleges accept only MED students in it for the money, they teach them how to get rich, they graduate them into the world’s least efficient health delivery system where ONLY the physicians and HMO execs get rich and better. How can med faculty teach greed well without the chance to practice it regularly by giving whatever speech contents drug companies want to pay for.
copywritergirl

Most of the doctors I have dealt with know little to nothing about the side effects and adverse reactions of the drugs they prescribe. I wonder what they were actually lecturing about?
davi2665

Why is Stanford NOT publishing the names of the individuals, the companies whose drugs they are promoting, and the penalties assessed. This ”behind the scenes” wrist slapping provides the institution with a publicity sound bite, but does not provide the transparency needed. It is reminiscent of Emory University doing virtually nothing about their infamous psychiatry shill receiving huge payments from drug companies whose products he was promoting. And he even lied to his president and dean, and still got nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Until total transparency is provided, no one will believe that the universities/medical schools are taking this matter seriously.
carburke

Just like the other institutions who say, sorry, we’ll get them; but no, we won’t tell you who they are. we’ll move them around – somewhere just like the catholic church has been doing. Hiding is serious business, astonishing stuff!
drjeff

It’s not really a claim you can make with a straight face, is it?
3224243

Fines and referral to student judiciary seem to be the only things that serve as deterrents (in my experience as a CIO).